I’ve been busy this week; teaching classes two evenings, then at the Ornamental Turning Society meeting this weekend in San Jose, CA. Not much time in between.
Julien made this mahogany box as a gift to his wife for his 5th anniversary. Good move, Julien!
Occasionally I’ll feature work by others. Today I’d like to introduce Julien, a regular at The Sawdust Shop in Sunnyvale, and a student in some classes I’ve taught there. He’s becoming a fine woodworker and finding his voice in his craft as he builds his skills. He sent me pictures to share of a keepsake box he built for his wife to celebrate their 5th anniversary. He explains as follows.
“This box is African Mahogany, stained with a brown mahogany gel stain. The center piece of the lid is figured maple, dyed with a honey amber dye. The finish is shellac, wiped with a folded cotton cloth (no brush marks!) The frame uses splines, also made from African Mahogany, which you can barely see on the photos. All other joinery is just straight miters. I used blue tape for the glue up of the miter joints. The bottom is lined with black velvet.
Here's the inside of Julien's box, showing tight joints and a neatly mortised hinge.
The biggest challenge with this project was to sand the frame. I used
masking tape to prevent sanding marks across the grain. Unfortunately,
when I applied the stain, it revealed that I had not done enough sanding. At that point, I could have wiped off the stain, sanded some
more, and reapplied the stain later. However, with the anniversary date looming, and me wanting to move on to other projects, I decided the sanding marks would become a “unique” feature of that box. My wife never noticed, and I tried to hide those in the photo. The great equalizer (time) may help making those disappear.”
LESSONS
Julien used gel stain on the mahogany; a fine choice here, and even better on blotch-prone woods such as cherry and pine, because its thick texture minimizes the uneven absorption which causes blotching. He switched to dye stain for the figured maple panel, knowing that gel stain (or any pigment stain) would have suppressed all that lovely figure, while a dye stain (which amplifies differences in absorption) “pops” the maple’s grain.
He cites some trouble with sanding scratches, which a pigment stain tends to highlight (as its large pigment particles settle into surface scratches and pores). Several things help prevent these problems. One is to level joints with a hand plane or card scraper, rather than sandpaper, minimizing the heavy sanding. Skew the cutters at 45º, roughly following the joint line instead of the grain of either frame piece. The second is to make a sanding block with ends cut at 45º. That way it’s easier to see when you’re sanding right up to the joint. The last tip is to wipe the joint area with alcohol when you think you’re done, then hold the surface up to a glancing light. It’ll reveal scratches you might not otherwise see until you apply a finish.
Thanks, Julien, for sharing this project with all of us. We all learn together.
If you’re reading this and would like to send in a project with some commentary for this blog, please contact me.
